เข้าสู่ระบบGRACE'S POV We got married on a Saturday in my backyard with thirty people watching. Small and intimate and nothing like our first wedding that had been all performance. This time everything was real. August and James were ring bearers, five years old and serious about their responsibilities. Li
CARTER'S POV Hope went to the NICU for observation because she was early. Standard protocol for thirty-five weekers the doctors said. Grace was exhausted but stable and I sat with her while nurses worked on our daughter in the next room. "I want to see her." Grace was trying to sit up. "Carter,
GRACE'S POV I called Carter Sunday morning with my conditions. "I read your letter five times. I believe you know me. But Carter, knowing someone and staying with someone are different things." I was sitting on my porch while the twins played inside with my mom. "I need you to prove you'll stay
CARTER'S POV I spent three days writing the letter. Not because I couldn't think of things to say but because I kept deleting what I wrote. Kept falling into old patterns of what sounded good instead of what was true. Dr. Chen told me to stop performing and just write honestly about why I loved Gr
CARTER'S POV The full reality hit me about thirty seconds after Grace told me. I was going to be a father again. Was going to have another chance at the beginning I'd missed with August and James. Was going to be there from the first moment if Grace let me. I sat down hard in her office chair be
GRACE'S POV I'd been nauseous for a week. Blamed it on stress from the press conferences and therapy and trying to figure out if Carter and I were actually doing this. My mom noticed first. "Grace, you look green. When did you last eat?" She was watching me push food around my plate at Sunday di
Yes. I'm pregnant. I'm carrying Carter's baby and he doesn't know and I'm planning to raise it alone in a town where nobody knows me. But I can't tell you that yet because if I do you'll have opinions and concerns and you'll want to be involved in a way I can't handle right now. "No. Nothing else.
"I didn't—look, you have to understand how this looks from my perspective." I was scrambling, trying to find words that would fix this even though I wasn't sure what needed fixing. "The timing is suspicious. You find the contract, the story goes public, and suddenly you're pregnant? You have to see
CARTER'S POV The words hung in the air between us and my first thought, the one that came before anything else, was that she was lying. Had to be lying. Grace wouldn't get pregnant now, not when the bet was public and our marriage was over and she had every reason to trap me with a baby that would
Because Grace was right. I'd gotten everything I wanted. The money, the victory, the proof that I was smarter than everyone else. And all it cost me was the only person who'd ever looked at me like I was worth loving, who'd believed in me enough to build her whole life around mine, who was now carry







